Terrible Things
by rippingbutterflywings
Summary: Clary tells her daughter, Emery, the story about how she and Jace fell in love, and what happened afterward. One-shot. AU/ all human.


**This is super short. Really, it's VERY short. But I got inspired. I listened to a song called "Terrible Things" by Mayday Parade. And, well…I was so sad. I cried. And I knew I needed to write this fanfic. It may be short, but…there's something about it, haha. Also, HOLY CRAP, guys. THE ONLY EXCEPTION got more than 170 visitors in one day! Thank you SO much! I love you guys. No one has seen this (again, sorry to my beta, lol) because it was written fast and late. And, well…eh, I don't know. There's something about this fanfic. I was going to write it in 1****st**** person (I'm better at writing 1****st**** than 3****rd****), but I didn't. So, here you go. I really hope you like it. Review! Also, check out the lovely and awesome MaxWaylandGrey. She just updated her new story, and OMG JACE *fans self*. That was pretty much my reaction, hahaha. **

**Enjoy! **

"Emery?" Clary calls out, waiting to see if her daughter's back from her date. She heard the door open a few seconds ago.

"Yeah?" Her daughter's voice echoes through the hallway.

"Can I talk to you?" Clary enters the living room. Her daughter sits there, looking as if she were the happiest girl in the whole entire world.

_I guess she is, _Clary thinks.

"Sure," Emery says, eyeing her mother warily.

"How was your date?" Clary sits down beside her daughter.

"Fine," Emery replies. "Mom, what is this about?"

Clary shuts her eyes. She remembers every detail of her teenage life. A laugh. A smile. His eyes. The way he looked at her when he kissed her. The way his face lit up when she said she loved him, and the way her whole insides turned into jelly when he told her the same. He remembered everything—the way he'd gone down on one knee one day and pulled out a box and asked her to marry him. And she'd jumped and cried and smiled. She had never been happier.

How's she supposed to say these things to Emery?

"Em," Clary says. "Are you in love with Logan?" Logan is her boyfriend. He's a great guy. He reminds me of Jace.

"Yeah," Emery replies. "Mom, I really am. I love him so much."

Clary looks at her seventeen year old daughter. She remembers when she was her age. She remembers how happy she was. She remembers Jace.

Everything.

"Honey, I need to tell you something." Clary looks at her daughter. "I want to tell you about your dad."

"Mom, I know he's not here." Emery rolls her eyes.

Clary shakes her head and shuts her eyes to keep the tears from falling. "You dad and I met in school," she tells Emery. "We fell in love. We were inseparable. I told him I thought he was in love with me. He looked at me every day."

Clary pauses. She remembers it as if it were yesterday. "I loved him. I'm only telling you this because things don't always go well, but not only because he breaks up with you. Jace and I would drink and go in picnics and we'd tell each other everything. And I was in love, like I'd wanted to be."

Clary stops speaking as a tear falls from her eye. "Mom?" Emery says, frowning.

"Yeah. Um, well, he asked me to marry me when we had just finished high school." She smiles at the memory. It was the happiest day of her life. "I said yes. My mother gave me hell for it, but she was happy. We got married. And then I got pregnant."

Emery smiles. Her mother's younger than most, but it's only because she was only nineteen when she had Emery.

"One day, Jace came from the doctor. He looked defeated. He said he had to tell me something. It wasn't good. He had five weeks to live. I cried." Her mother's voice breaks as she says the last sentence and she starts crying harder. "I cried so much. And Jace didn't want me to cry. He said I was the best thing in his life. He said he loved me. He said that I was the greatest thing that ever happened to him."

Emery starts to cry then. She can't imagine living that. She can't imagine loving someone so much and then have them yanked away from life. She just…can't. She doesn't want to. But it happened to her mother. That's when she realizes that her mother is strong, way stronger than Emery could've ever imagined.

"I'm only telling you this because I care, Em," her mother says. "Because I love you, and because love hurts and life is terrible."

"Mom," Emery says, tears falling from her cheeks. "I love him."

Clary takes a deep breath. He looks at her daughter. "I loved him, too."

"Are you trying to stop me from being with him?" Emery says abruptly.

"No," Clary says. "I'm trying to tell you that love isn't easy. Some things hurt so much. I felt I could die, Em. I'm here. Whatever happens, Emery. I'll always be here."

"I love you, Mom. And I'm so sorry."

Clary smiles weakly. "Me too?"

"What happened, then?" Emery asks.

"Then you were born, and I knew I had someone else to love."


End file.
